In the snow at Brooklands, early in 1917, is seen the first Camel of all, an F.I, with 110 h.p. Clerget rotary engine.
SOPWITH CAMEL PART 1
HISTORIC MILITARY AIRCRAFT No. 10 By J. M. BRUCE, M.A.
ON December 22nd, 1916, the Sopwith AviationCompany's experimental department passed out astocky little single-seat fighter which was to have a
great influence on the course of the war in the air.
The Sopwith Biplane F.I, soon to be known as the Camel, was
developed from the Sopwith Pup, to which it bore a family resem-
blance. In flying characteristics the two aircraft were not so
completely dissimilar as most accounts imply; but because the
Camel was heavier, more powerful and faster, its characteristics,
good and bad, were more strongly pronounced. Things happened
more quickly on the Camel, and the torque effect of its bigger
and heavier engine was very marked, especially when changing
direction. Both aircraft were manoeuvrable, but whereas the Pup
was docile, obedient, tractable, the Camel appeared waspish,
wilful, intolerant..
Yet in the right hands the Camel was a lethal weapon. Its
sensitivity to the controls made it the supreme dog-fighting aero-
plane in the armoury of the Allies; only the Fokker Dr.l could
match its manoeuvrability. The total number of enemy aircraft
shot down by Camels was 1,294, a greater number than were
defeated by any other single type of aeroplane of the 1914-18 war.
The Camel was a snub-nosed, hump-backed little biplane with
staggered single-bay wings. The lower wing had a pronounced
dihedral angle which contrasted markedly with the flat upper wing
and seemed to accentuate the hump which enclosed the breeches
of the two Vickers machine-guns. It was, of course, to that
hump that the Camel owed its name. The name was unofficial,
but so popular that it was ultimately accepted.
Structurally there was nothing unusual about the Camel. The
fuselage was a wire-braced wooden box-girder with a rounded top-
A standard Clerget-powered Camel of the R.F.C. The guns hare been
removed but one port is visible in the "hump" forward of the cockpit.
THE author wishes gratefully to acknowledge the assistance he hasreceived from G/C E. F. Haylock, with notes on handling qualities
and the two-seat Camel, and from Mr. H. H. Russell, who providedmuch of the information about the Camels used by the various
squadrons. Part II of this article will deal mainly with the 2F.1 Camelin Naval service and will include data on both the F.I and 2F.1.
decking. Aluminium panels covered the first bay behind the
engine; the sides were then covered with plywood as far aft as
the rear of the cockpit; and the remainder of the structure was
fabric-covered.
One of the factors which contributed to the Camel's manoeuvra-
bility was the concentration of all the greater masses within a
short length of fuselage. The engine, guns, pilot and fuel were
all close together in an overall length of about seven feet.
The wings were conventional wire-braced, fabric-covered
wooden structures. On the prototype Camel the upper wing was in
one piece, but on production machines it was made in three parts:
a centre section and two outer panels. Naturally this led to a
different disposition of wing ribs in the production Camels. The
spars were of spruce; the lower mainplane rear spar was solid
and the others were spindled-out for lightness.
The centre section was unusually wide and extended some way
outboard of the centre-section struts. These struts were splayed
outwards when seen in end elevation and were made of spruce, as
also were the interplane struts. Ailerons were fitted to both upper
and lower mainplanes.
The prototype Camel was powered by the 110 h.p. Clerget
rotary engine, but production machines had the more powerful
130 h.p. engine of the same make. The F.I Camel was also built
in some numbers with the 110 h.p. Le Rhone.
The pilot sat between the rear centre-section struts, where a
considerable portion of his field of vision was obscured by the
upper wing. There was the usual cut-out in the trailing edge of
the centre section, and a central aperture was made between the
spars in order to improve the upward view. This opening varied
in width according to the tastes of individual pilots, and was
longitudinally bisected by the central compression strut of the
centre section. The ailerons of production Camels were of slightly
greater span than those of the prototype.
As a British fighting aeroplane the Camel's greatest significance
lay in its armament. It was the first British fighter to mount the
classic weapon installation—a side-by-side pair of synchronized
Vickers guns firing through the airscrew. It was not by any means
the first two-gun fighter, for several earlier enemy types had had
twin synchronized guns; nor was it even the first British fighter
to have two guns, for it was preceded in the Service by the S.E.5
with its combination of a Lewis and a Vickers. The Camel's fire-